ARTSBEAT; A Biography of Gore Vidal Is Planned for 2015

By DAVE ITZKOFF

Published: August 23, 2012

Gore Vidal, the prolific and pugnacious man of letters who died in July, will be unfurled in a new biography written by Jay Parini, the novelist and scholar, and published by Doubleday.Gerald Howard, the Doubleday executive editor and vice president, said on Wednesday that he had acquired the project from Mr. Parini, the author of novels like "The Last Station," confirming a report from PublishersMarketplace.com.">

The life of Gore Vidal, the prolific and pugnacious man of letters who died in July, will be unfurled in a new biography written by Jay Parini, the novelist and scholar, and published by Doubleday.Gerald Howard, the Doubleday executive editor and vice president, said on Wednesday that he had acquired the project from Mr. Parini, the author of novels like "The Last Station," confirming a report from PublishersMarketplace.com.

Mr. Howard said in a telephone interview that Mr. Parini, who has previously written biographies of John Steinbeck, William Faulkner and Robert Frost, had been a friend of Mr. Vidal's for some 30 years since they first met in Italy.

"They hit it off quite well," Mr. Howard said, "and Jay had been talking to Gore for all that time, usually weekly and sometimes daily, in person or more often over the phone, so he knows a lot about Gore that he's heard directly from the source, and that's certainly one of the major things that's going to inform the biography, this intimate acquaintance that they had."

Mr. Howard said it would take about two years for Mr. Parini to complete his research and interviews for the biography. The book is planned for publication in 2015.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY REUTERS)

Gore Vidal, the prolific and pugnacious man of letters who died in July, will be unfurled in a new biography written by Jay Parini, the novelist and scholar, and published by Doubleday.Gerald Howard, the Doubleday executive editor and vice president, said on Wednesday that he had acquired the project from Mr. Parini, the author of novels like "The Last Station," confirming a report from PublishersMarketplace.com.">